Publication Date:
2015-01-27
Description:
Topography influences the circulation in the Southern Ocean, generating stationary meanders in the lee of topographic features, triggering hotspots of mesoscale eddy kinetic energy and modifying jets and fronts. However, the relationship between topography and sub-mesoscale flows (with length scales of order 1–10 km) has not yet been explored. The first sub-mesoscale-resolving (1/80° resolution) ocean model, with realistic topography of the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean, is used to investigate this interaction. The results show spatial inhomogeneity in sub-mesoscale activity that is correlated with topography. Topographic influence is primarily indirect: topography controls mesoscale flows, which in turn generate sub-mesoscale activity. Mesoscale eddy kinetic energy and strain rate can be used, to first order, to infer sub-mesoscale vertical velocity, implying a possible route to parameterise sub-mesoscale activity in coarser resolution models.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
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